The Plan B Adventure

Welcome to Cambodia everyone…..land of enchanting temples, beautiful sunshine, and one of the poorest populations outside of Africa. We flew into Siem Reap via the reputable Lao Airlines in comfort looking forward to spending a great week in Siem Reap and the surrounding areas relishing in the culture of Cambodia and the masterpieces of the Angkor Temples.

Right off the bat we have to give a strong recommendation to stay at the Villa Siem Reap. The owners, Fiona and Anthony, recently remodeled and designed a beautiful guesthouse, tucked away from the monsterous Disneyland-like hotels so you can experience Cambodian culture while accessing their extensive information on temples and other things to do. The staff is exceptionally friendly (Thank you to all!!) and every $.07 that Fiona and Anthony make goes to charitable causes in the Siem Reap area. Great job guys….we can’t wait to see you again.

So as we strolled out of the airport (way worth it to fly opposed to overland through southern Laos) Villa Siem Reap had arranged for us to be picked up in tuk-tuk by Mr. Chantha, our designated driver for the week. He was great and had drinks waiting for us upon arrival. We were both shocked as we drove into town by the sheer number of giant, luxury hotels that have gone up or are going up and the amount of construction on infrastructural issues like drainage and landscaping. As we came to find out over the next few days Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor are slowly becoming THE destination vacation in Southeast Asia if you aren’t looking for the beach. And rightly so……this city is teeming with fantastic people, enjoyable sights and activities, and more tourist-oriented accommodations than you can shake a stick at. We can both imagine the level of development that will have taken place when we visit next.

Once we got to the hotel and had a chance to decompress and relax we opted to see the sunset at a less-frequented temple location, Banteay Kdei. Fiona recommended this site to get our feet wet (some local kids took it literally) and enjoy our first experience without the busloads of Japanese and German tourists….and she was right. What a gorgeous jungle setting at sunset with the sun-soaked stone and orange-reddish sun poking its head through the giant silk and fig trees. Our first impressions: breathtaking, amazing construction, and everyone needs to witness these sites at some point in their lifetime.

A few logistical bits of information…you have many transportation options to see the temples. Our favorite, the moto-tuk-tuk, essentially a covered carriage securly fastened to the back of a moto. Very comfortable, safer than a moto itself, and $10 a day.You could also go with a private car for $20 and in our minds that’s the only other option. Your other options are walking and/or riding a bike. Imagine this, it’s 95 degrees without a cloud in site, you have just marched up 100 stairs to the top of a temple then down, your clothes are basically nicely sown towels due to their absortion of your sweat, and now you have to get on a bike and pedal to the next temple. We’ll save the exercise for home (right, Molly!!) and sit our asses on a padded seat with a cooler of cold drinks at our feet and have Mr Chantha wisk us away to the next location. As for the walkers….good luck…give yourself a month and bring an umbrella and three pairs of sandals.

Day Two began at about 1:30am that morning. Jeff was making a game of how many times he could adjourn to the restroom if you get the drift….couple that with some intense muscle aches and it looked like Round Two of the Plan B Adventure stomach virus had taken its toll on your favorite travellers. It also began to look like Becca would have to use the first day of our temple passes on her own 🙁 She was not happy about not being able to share her first impressions with Jeff but she promised not to go to Angkor Wat and do a lot of looking around at other stuff so when Jeff got better they could efficiently (what other way would she do anything) tackle the stuff she had seen and he hadn’t.

Becca’s first stop was the royal city of Angkor Thom (for everyone who’s interested or needs a reference here is a map of the Angkor Temples), which houses multiple temples and Buddhist monuments constructed at the peak of Angkor civilization. She first set eyes (before the multitudes of tour groups arrived) on Bayon, which contains some of the most famous Buddhist stone faces (we know you’ve seen them) in all of Angkor. 54 towers, in fact, are constructed within the walls of the Bayon with 4 stone faces to each tower. At the base of the towers were gorgeously constructed bas-reliefs of wars won and lost, as well as daily life of the Khmer people. After the centerpiece of Angkor Thom, Becca moved through many of the other grand sites within this walled city and couldn’t come close to imagining what this area must have been like in its heyday and the amount of sheer activity and talent it took to build something like this. From Angkor Thom she moved to some of the other older temples and discovered the different styles of temple-building and began to fashion her opinion on some of her favorites. Anything with Hindu influence and anything with an elephant!!! To end her day she beat the masses to the jungle-enclosed temple of Ta Prohm, constructed for the reigning king’s mother (of, course) and one of the only temples left by restoration efforts to the throws of the jungle. She immensely enjoyed its grand scale and natural state and rushed home to share with Jeff, prediciting Ta Prohm would be one of his favorites.

After much bread, crackers, and rice Jeff was ready to rumble (so was his stomach) for Day Three. The travelling duo decided to take it slow and ease Jeff’s stomach into the rigors of Angkorian exploration. Becca had mapped out a great tour starting with many of the outerlying temples she hadn’t seen and including some of the oldest, yet better preserved temples that had been constructed over 1000 years ago. We started with Preah Khan, which was built to honor the reigning king’s father and strictly Buddhist style architecture. It was gigantic and much in line with Ta Prohm and, even more similar, to the sunset temple seen on the first night of Banteay Kdei.

After a full day of temple exploration including many great photos, newly-learned history, and preferred architectural styles we were off to see the sunset at Tourist Heaven. But not before Becca met the “Andrew Lamb” of Angkor and was kindly persuaded into purchasing a few of his wonderful books (We will comment on this cottage industry on a future post) at the low, low price of two for $10. As a side note, the Angkor history book was worth its weight in gold and we anticipate the Vietnam book to be the same in the weeks to come.

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng (the first capital of Angkor) was hilarious and beautiful. Hundreds of tourists and tour buses unloading at the foot of one of the most rigorous climbs in all of Angkor. We are dedicating a special blog entry to the footwear employed by all-comers so stay tuned for that!!! Once we ascended the hill, the ascension to the temple followed and we were thoroughly drenched after the 15 minute climb…UGH it’s hot! (We know none of you are sympathezing in Seattle or Chicago) but it is really uncomfortable at times…..At the summit the views are striking. A gorgeous glowing Angkor Wat complex in the distance with the sun setting across the Baray (man-made lake) while you watch the dust shoot up and settle from the hustle and bustle of everyday Cambodian life. We had a blast watching the sun descend and commenting on other tourists. Fortunately, we beat the rush down the mountain by keenly predicting the sun would set behind a cloud and escaped into the night……As we headed home and assessed Jeff’s stomach situation we decided to get up at dawn to view the great Angkor Wat at sunrise…..

VIP….Very Important Person, right? Maybe if you are a Laotian karaoke star!!! This is just what we found on the ride from Phonsavan to the Lao capital of Vientiane. What was billed as our ten-hour luxury VIP ride through the Laotian countryside turned out to be a hilarious yet death-defying ride (OH!!! You didn’t think it could get worse, did you?) through, what we felt was, every mountain range in Laos. The bus was very nice. Comfy, reclining seats with plenty of leg room. Sorry, we didn’t take any pictures (couldn’t release my grip from the seat cushion) so just close your eyes and imagine. Obviously, once you graduate from negotiating a public bus through the Lao mountains they move you up to a bigger, faster bus, which you are expected to drive faster through the same mountains. Apparently, the factor for our driver’s success must be full volume karaoke videos blaring through the entire bus because he moved us from Phonsavan to Vientiene in 7 hours rather than the expected 10 hour journey. What a talent!!…moving in and out of car with a giant bus while wrapping back and forth around the high mountains of Laos.

From what we had heard from fellow travellers about Vientiane it was nothing to look forward to. Big city, bustling with cars and people, that just hasn’t quite made it into the 21st century yet. Well, we were pleasantly surprised. Especially since the minute we stepped off our ride into the center of town we literally ran into our British travel buddy, Andrew whom readers will remember from our bus ride in Northern Thailand and our Mekong slow boat float. Yes…..he was on THAT boat too!! but he’s a river fanatic and we think he put up with the rigors a bit better than the two spolied Americans. Well, Andrew introduced us to what he’d been doing in Vientiane since we didn’t have any definitive plans so we thought we’d combine his highlights with some other stuff we had seen.

These sights included a walk to the Patuxai (Laos’ version of the Arc de Triumph), a stop by Si Saket (our favorite Wat yet and site of some spectacular photos), a sun-sheltered visit to the Lao History Museum (great job Lao government), a quick jaunt through Talat Sao (the gigantic morning market), a short interlude at the national temple of Tat Luang, and then the highlight of our trip (courtesy of Lonely Planet and our Spanish dining partner, Baba), the Buddha Park. As you can see from the pictures these are great national treasures and should be must-do’s for any visitor to Vientiane. Since Jeff is eliminating his extremely verbose nature in this email we thought we’d take the time to highlight just one….our favorite….the Buddha Park.

This park, otherwise known as Xieng Khuang, is located about 25-35km outside of Vientiane proper located on a great piece of property along the Mekong River. It was constructed in 1958 by a Lao sculptor and is his attempt to fuse Buddhist and Hindu cultures. The park and sculptures are fantasticly unique and provide a quirky look at many of the statues, gods and dieties that we have been veiwing over the past month. Check out this traveller’s site whom did a bit lengthier explanation if you are interested in the details.

Many guidebooks say you could bike it for exercise but trust us this is a horrible option, which includes multiple face-fulls of dust and exhaust, the ever-present possibility of getting run of the road by any number of vehicles, and obviously the heat which was reaching into the mid-90’s (F) with no relief from the humidity. We saw two Japanese girls on their way back and they did not look happy. Sorry girls…but we had to chuckle. We opted for the public bus, which you can all guess would be an adventure in itself. And it was…..a Great One!!

The #14 bus could possibly have the friendliest drivers, both out and back, we have encountered on our trip. On the way out, which took about an hour, we drove with a jam-packed bus (Bec on one side, Jeff on the other with a family of four sandwiched in-between) which was piloted by the Dancing Driver. As we made our way through a local festival parade he musicly tooted our horn and donated some of the bus fare to the locals that were celebrating. We think it was for a local temple but our Lao is pretty bad and the people on the bus just smiled when we tried to ask what was happening. When we reached the temple our driver happily jumped up and kindly ushered out to the Buddha Park. 

We really enjoyed the park which was littered with every Buddhist and Hindu diety you can imagine constructed in the sculptor’s unique eccentric way. The solitude and lack of tourists was also extremely welcoming and gave us the opportunity for some great photos and a relaxing discussion about what the heck this guy must have been thinking (or smoking)! His version of the universe is especially a mind-blower as he fashions it to look like a giant ball with windows all over and a leaf-less tree rising to the heavens. As you walk into the belly of the beast you get to witness the life level first, then ascend to heaven or descend to hell. Quite interesting, especially since we each took a seperate way, Becca heading straight to the top, while can you guess which way Jeff decided to explore first!!

So as we said the driver on the way back was just as funny. Picking up groceries and drinks from locals on the way into town as well as stopping for ten minutes to rabble-rouse the local Happy Hour gang where we picked up the highlights to the journey. They were Alex, Sai, and Diana. All native Lao, Alex now lives in France, his wife in Laos, and their sister is Kansas City. Quite a hilarious bus ride for the next 30 minutes getting to know them all and hearing about their enjoyment of Johnny Walker since 3pm in the afternoon. It was great fun and we can’t wait for our next public bus!

Well, it’s off to Siem Reap and the Kingdom of Cambodia. We can’t wait to share our stories and pictures of the fabulous Angkor temples and Jeff’s upcoming bout with Stomach Virus II, the revenge of Laotian food!!

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